Friday, October 30, 2009

Samsung introduces the Blue Earth environmentally friendly green cell phone. Unlike other green cell phones this is a full featured phone. Among the green features are ... a solar cell for charging, low power use while in standby mode and fewer harmful materials.

" ... user interface ... designed to draw attention to preserving our fragile environment. With “Eco mode,” screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth can be set to an energy-efficient mode with just one click. ... “Eco Walk” ... allows users to ... calculate the reduction in CO2 emission realized by walking as opposed to using a motor vehicle. ... allows users to see the value of walking by calculating the number of trees that have been saved."

"... the solar panel located on the back of the phone ... can generate enough power to use the device anytime and anywhere. ..."

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Go Green for Halloween. Have a Greener Halloween. Need ideas and info?

Read on for more >>>

"Green Halloween is a non-profit, grassroots community initiative to create healthier and more Earth-friendly holidays, starting with Halloween. ... began in the Seattle area in 2007 ... In cities across the country, volunteer coordinators are not only working to turn their city’s Halloween holiday healthy and eco-friendly, but many are also raising money for their own, local nonprofit beneficiaries."

" ... developed the 3 G’s of being green. In our book, doing or choosing one is light green, two is green and three is dark green and therefore ideal. ..."

" ... the 3 G’s ... Good for People ... Healthy treats and treasures fall under this category. ... Good for Planet – Includes making choices that have the least impact ... Good for the Community – Including making choices and supporting businesses whose business practices and products support the well being of communities ..."

Monday, October 26, 2009

Lapels® Dry Cleaning is a green dry cleaning company ... their process is green and they use principles in their stores.

" ... committed to using the most advanced environmental practices and technologies ... environmentally-friendly solvent ... Has no odor ... Breaks down naturally and is non-toxic to the environment ... gentle on clothes ... plants ... recycling the cleaning solution ..."

is the first government-sponsored technology competition designed to spur lighting manufacturers to develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb."

"If every socket in the U.S. converted their 60W incandescent lamps to the 10 W L Prize winner, the country would save approximately 34.0 Terawatt-hours of electricity in one year, and avoid 5.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions.... enough electricity to power the lights of 17.4 million U.S. households, or nearly twice the annual electricity consumption of the city of Las Vegas."

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Many office buildings are looking to save energy and water ... one easy way to do this is with waterless urinals. In addition to saving the cost of the additional plumbing (no water line needed - sewer line is needed) there is the recurring water savings.

" ... Waterless Co. ... the most simple and most cost effective system on the world market. ... No-Flush™ urinals work completely without water or flush valves. .... easy to install, improves restroom sanitation and eliminates odors."

" ... estimated that up to 20% of the available drinking water in the world is flushed down the drain, wastefully. ... leakage of water delivery lines may add an additional 8% ... "

" ... Waterless urinal saves on average 20,000 to 45,000 gallons of water a year. ... estimated that there are approximately 8 million urinals installed in the US alone with approximately 100 million people using these fixtures. Assuming an average 2 gallon flush, the potable water use of urinals alone, in this country per year, is approximately 160 billion gallons!..."

On your local level this could mean: A typical office building rest room with three urinals and 120 men equals a yearly water use of 237,600 gallons of potable water flushed down the drain. This assumes three uses per person per day and only 220 working days.

San Francisco residents now can add a composting bin for pickup along with the traditional recycling and trash.

SF residents can move a lot of what used to be considered trash into the compost bin ... further reducing the demand on landfills ... items that can be composted include "meat along with bones, seafood and shells, and most anything that was once alive ...

"Unlike home composting, we accept all food scraps, soiled paper, and yard trimmings in the green cart. ..."

" ... green cart is for all compostable items, such as food scraps and yard trimmings. ... allows San Francisco to r... achieve the state-mandated 50% recycling goal. "

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I have been reading alot about SF and their green efforts ... there are quite a few listings on our blog ... here's another ...

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is adding to it's green offerings of reducing their environmental impact by reducing noise, reducing global warming and preserving natural resources like air and water ... buy making it easy to buy csarbon off sets for your air travel.

" ... recognize the importance that environmental sustainability plays in helping achieve this goal ... committed to drastically reducing its environmental impact over the next decade. ... working to reduce contributions to global warming, improve air and water quality, reduce noise impacts, and preserve natural resources."
SFO now offers the Climate Passport program; a way to help travelers reduce their travel carbon footprint by purchasing offsets.
Here is how it works ... " ... drop by a kiosk that will calculate the carbon impact of your travel ... buy offsets from the kiosk manager, 3Degrees, ... Some of the money will also go to the San Francisco Carbon Fund ... offsets purchased ... are verified by the Climate Action Registry."Check out the interactive carbon calculator ...

This morning a round trip flight to Houston's Intercontinental from Philadelphia;phia would On Sunday Oct 18, the cost for a carbon offset for a round trip flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco and back would cost $12.01 and off set 1,961 lbs of CO2.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Brown bagging is a great way to save time money by bringing left overs or other home made food to work for lunch. One possible negative is the waste created by throwing away plastic sandwich bags.

Enter Lunch Skins!

"Dishwasher Safe. Made in the USA of a quick-drying German fabric certified as food safe. Moisture and grease proof. Replaces countless plastic baggies!"

" ... found a certified food-safe German fabric and have designed and manufactured these snack bags right here in the USA. ... can be easily thrown in the dishwasher ... we have a vision of a greener world. ... it can be as easy as changing wasteful habits by using better products! .. designed a smart alternative to the plastic baggie ..."

Monday, October 19, 2009

Recyclebank "... partners with cities and haulers to reward households for recycling. Households earn RecycleBank Points that can be used to shop at over 1,500 local and national businesses."

The process is Recycle, Redeem. Reward. The rewards go beyond the points that can be used for shopping ... and include helping to lighten you eco-footprint.

" ... an eco-footprint really is a measure of how lightly - or un-lightly - we tread on the planet ... are determined through the amount of greenhouse gases produced, in units of carbon dioxide. ... "

" ... average American generates 4.5 lbs of garbage per day ... average American family generates approximately 2.5 tons of garbage a year ... Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours ... Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill."

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Timberland is known as a eco friendly / green company. They label their shoes with the carbon footprint and have a corporate sustainability document showing how they have done over the last few years.

They also have a blog - Earthkeeper - " ... a new way to call someone who cares about the environment. ... people doing small things, like recycling, biking instead of driving and using energy-efficient light bulbs. And people doing bigger things, like replanting eroded areas and retrofitting their engines to run on bio fuel. ..."

" ... it’s time for companies, like ours, to take a look at how the way they do business affects the environment and do something about it. Earthkeepers is one way we’re trying to do exactly that. Our goal—inspire and engage one million Earthkeepers. .."

Follow the LINK to read more about Timberland's Corporate Social Responsibility.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

The next advance in roofing materials may be smart roofing tiles that can change color based on outdoor temperature to maximize or minimize solar gain.

"MIT researchers have developed roof tiles that change color based on the temperature, turning white when it’s hot to deflect heat and turning black when it’s cold to absorb it ... the tiles can reflect about 80 percent of sunlight when they’re white and 30 percent of sunlight when they’re black. ... white state ... could save as much as 20 percent of present cooling costs ..."

" ... system ... made of a ... polymer in a water solution ... encapsulated between flexible plastic layers, with a dark layer at the back. When the temperature is above a certain level ... the polymer ... produce a white surface and scatter light. ... Below that temperature, the polymer stays dissolved, revealing the tile’s black backing and absorbing the sun’s heat ..."

Thursday, October 15, 2009

" .... banning all rigid plastic containers from landfills ... focus largely on the recovery of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). ... plastic, commonly identified by the number “1″ inside a recycling symbol on the bottle, is the resin of choice for most soda and water bottles."landfill

" ... building the nation's largest facility to recycle PET bottles, ... process 280 million pounds of material per year. One of the primary partners ... is carpet manufacturer Shaw Industries Group, LLC, which can turn recycled PET into polyester for use in carpeting."
" ... state will be inspecting landfills starting in October, but it’s unlikely that individuals will be fined for trashing plastic bottles unless they are caught unloading a large amount."

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Looking for a way to compost stuff but do do not or cannot have your own ... check out the listings at findacomposter.com

" ... a service of BioCycle magazine ... searchable data base to locate a composting facility in your area. Choose a state or province ...to search by any of the fields in the data base."

"... demonstrates the vitality and potential of the composting industry. We urge you to explore the Resources Page, as well as links to international, federal, state and local composting and organics diversion initiatives."

Saturday, October 10, 2009

HIP - Horticultural Identification Products produces a number of green labels and tags ... to make your garden greener and reduced the amount of plastic used in labeling potted plants.

"BioTag is produced using a ... polymer technology that relies on bio-based products such as corn, soybeans, sorghum, tapioca, and potato starches rather than fossil fuel-based resins. ... natural composition that is biodegradable in the soil in approximately one year. ... meets or exceeds all ASTM standards for compostable plastics and aerobic biodegradation."

" ... EcoTag, a degradable alternative to traditional plastic nursery tags. ... Manufactured using wind power ... is environmentally friendly ... rigid nursery tags retain their integrity until buried in compost or disposed of in a landfill. The buried degradation process takes 1 to 5 years."

Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Dow Chemical company is active in the green energy space with several innovative products.

They recently announced their entry into the solar cell market with the " ... POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle, ... panels in the form of solar shingles that can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingle materials. ... expected to be available in limited quantities by mid-2010 and ... more widely available in 2011, ..."

" ... Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVSC) ... started working on the site categorized as both the largest Brownfield... started working on the site categorized as both the largest Brownfield redevelopment project in the nation and the largest casino development investment made to date in the Commonwealth. ... the historic Bethlehem Steel plant is ... transformed into a fully integrated resort consisting of ... 200,000 square feet of premium retail outlet shopping, and 46,000 square feet of flexible multi-purpose space. ..."

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Wattme produces portable power systems that are charged by solar panels sold as GoBe. These simple devices can provide safe reliable power where non previously existed." ... story begins in the Democratic Republic of Congo ... much of the country lacked reliable power with the majority of villages having no ... electricity. In some cases homes were found with car batteries providing power with electrical posts and battery acid dangerously exposed."

" ... the GoBe power system was born ... a portable power pack that could provide light, and with numerous outputs, charge a variety of devices. With the accessory solar panels, the GoBe remains charged."

" ... the GoBe can keep a 5 watt LED light on for a week ... can extend the battery life of laptop for up to an additional 4 hours."

Saturday, October 3, 2009

The No Impact Project " ... is an international, environmental, nonprofit project ... inspired by the No Impact Man book, film, and blog."

" ... empower citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in environmental politics. ... Living low-impact provides a clear entry point into the environmental movement. ..."

Check out the video that gives details to this very interesting story. Learn how you can take steps to reduce / eliminate your impact ...

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About Me

I have always been a bit of a "green dude".
I remember as a young cub scout holding paper drives (do people still have paper drives) well before there was commercial recycling.
As an adult I recycle more than most folks ... including #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6 plastics ... more on that later.